Whilst it can certainly be argued that the
'original' Arthur is probably a
non-historical (folkloric or mythical) figure who became
associated with historical deeds by the ninth century via a process of
historicisation (Padel, 1994; Green, 1998; Green, 2007), it has to be
recognised that the opposing
view has often been taken too. With regards to this, it is fair to say
that a vast
literature has been generated by the search
for historical characters who 'fit the facts' – that is to
say, by the quest to identify the 'original' historical
Arthur. The present piece is intended as a guide to
the four of the most popular theories which have been proposed by
those
who choose to make the a priori assumption that
there really was a historical Arthur at the core of the
Arthurian legend. It is felt that such a guide is necessary
due to the continuing popularity of this assumption,
particularly outside of the academic community, and the
potential difficulties for the interested reader in discriminating
between the various theories propounded. The value of these
theories in
general, and of the
search itself, is fully discussed elsewhere (Green, 1998; Green, 2007)
and needs
no further elaboration here, other than to simply say that an enormous
number of theories can and have been proposed. In
order for the following guide to work, the question of whether the
search for a historical Arthur is a useful one is ignored.
Similarly, the notion of 'no smoke without fire' – which
is criticised heavily elsewhere – is treated as reasonable, i.e.
the analyses below follow the theories they
discuss in
assuming that there probably was a historical Arthur.

T.
Burkitt and A. Burkitt, 'The frontier zone and the
siege of Mount Badon : a review of the evidence for their location', Proceedings
of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society,
134 (1990), pp.81-93

C.
Scull, 'Approaches to material culture and social
dynamics of the migration period in eastern England', in J. Bintliff
and H. Hamerow (edd.) Europe Between Late Antiquity and the
Middle Ages (Oxford, 1995), pp. 71-83

W.F.
Skene, The
Four Ancient Books of Wales (Edinburgh, 1868)

E.A.
Thompson, 'Gildas and the History of Britain', Britannia,
10 (1979), pp. 203-26